Eighties Alphabetically

 Welcome to my new Saturday series, Eighties Alphabetically.  I've previously done Sixties Saturday and Seventies Saturday, showing Cubs team sets from those decades.  

Eighties Saturday doesn't have the same alliteration as those other two, so I decided to change things up a bit and go with Eighties Alphabetically.  That gives me my alliteration.

So what will I be doing?

Each Saturday I'll show a brand's Cubs cards from the 1980s, and I do the brand names in alphabetical order.  I've got cards from 94 different brands, so this will take almost two years.  I may stretch some of the bigger sets into a couple different posts, too.

I won't be doing the cards from the big brands, either.  There will be no Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, Score, or Pacific, since I've already done those in my Comparing the Main Brands posts.

Some of the brands have just one card, some have cards from almost every year of the decade, and most fall somewhere in between.

And which brands, you ask, will I be doing?

Here are the 94 that will be featured, starting next week, in alphabetical order:

3-D

Action Packed

Ajax

All Star Program

Ames

Archives Reprints

Baseball All Time Greats

Baseball Card Magazine

Baseball Legends

Bazooka

Big

Big League Chew

Big League Collectibles

Boardwalk and Baseball

Bowman

Burger King Cadaco

Cap'n Crunch

Champions

Chef Boyardee

Circle K

Classic

Coke

Conlon

Cracker Jack

Cramers

Dorman's Cheese

Drakes

Fantastic Sams

FBI

Fleer Stamps

Fleer Stickers

Fritsch

Fun Foods

Galasso Glossy Greats

General Mills Hills

Holsum

Hostess

Jays

Jewel

Jiffy Pop

Jox

KAS

KayBee

Kelloggs

King B

Kitty Clover

K Mart

Kraft

Leaf

Louisville Slugger

MM's

MLB in Stamps

Meadow Gold

MSA

Nestle

Nissen

On Deck Cookies O-Pee-Chee Stickers

Our Own Tea

Panini

Perez Steele

Perma-Graphics

Peter Pan

Quaker Oats

SCD Price Guide

Score

Seven Eleven

Smokey Bear

Sportflics

Sports Design Products

SI for Kids

Squirt

Star

Starline

Starting Lineup

Stuart

Super

Super Stars

Superstar

Superstar Photo cards

Swell

TCMA

Team Issued

Tetley Tea

Topps Coins

Topps Stickers

Topps UK

Toys R Us

True Value

Unocal

Weis

Woolworth

Pete Crow-Armstrong Follows the Rules, Pete Crow-Armstrong Follows the Rules

 This is a two-for-one post.  Highly touted Cubs prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong was called up to the team in September.  He was to be used as a pinch runner and a late-inning defensive replacement as the Cubs were on their way to the post-season.

The team never made it, collapsing over the last couple of weeks.  Crow-Armstrong didn't exactly set the world on fire either.  As a pinch runner, he stole two bases in four attempts, and a 50% success rate is not very good.  Hit batting average was even worse, going 0-11.

But... since he did play for the Cubs in 2023, he became a rule follower for me with both my relic and autograph collections.  And I was able to do a two-for-one with this card.

The card is from Panini's Immaculate Collection, and as you can see, it has both a relic and an autograph.  He is the 163rd autograph and 105th relic in my rule-following collection.

Dansby Swanson Living Set

Dansby Swanson is the latest Cub in Topps' Living set, added the week of October 18.  He is the fifth Cub player in 2023, which is the most Cubs in a year since six were included in 2018, the set's first year.

The artist, Jared Kelley, did an amazing job.  The painting looks very much like a photograph.

The card had a print run of 2,642.  That is the highest run for a Cub card since Seiya Suziki's card last August.  

There are now 24 Cubs cards in the set and they make a nice 4x6 mosaic.

Matt Mervis Follows the Rules

 I took care of my Matt Mervis autograph a while back.  Now it's time to get a relic card.

This is what I picked up, a Bowman Chrome Arizona Fall League jersey.  Some could argue that this isn't a Cubs card since he is wearing an AFL hat.  But the jersey is a Cubs jersey and the team designation on the card says "Chicago Cubs."  That's two out of three and two out of three ain't bad.

Another Most Wanted Snagged

 My hot spell with the most-wanted list continues as I knocked off another.

This is the 2013 Justin Grimm Select card. I have absolutely no idea why the card is so difficult.  Is there a Justin Grimm super collector out there hoarding them?

In fact, I had to fudge things a bit here.  The card I picked up isn't the base card.  It's the Prizm card, which is limited to 99 copies.  I'll call that close enough.

This is the 13th card on my most wanted list that I've been able to get, and now the list is down to 15 cards.

2023 Topps Holiday Cubs

 The 2023 version of the holiday set came out really early, in late October.  Why can Topps put out the holiday set months before Christmas, but makes us wait until October for Allen and Ginter, which used to come out in July?

As usual, the set adds snow flakes and green and red accents to the Topps flagship design.  There are 200 cards on the checklist and eight of them are Cubs.

 

 

 

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 21,285 Cubs cards from 316 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1979 Fritsch One Year Wonders #19 Daryl Robertson He made his MLB debut as a 26-year-old rookie for the Cubs on May 4, 1962.  He hit just .105 in nine games over the month and was sent back to the minors.  he never made it back to the big leagues

1980s: 1984 Team Issued #49 Tim Stoddard The Cubs gave this set away on August 8 as they took on the Mets. The Cubs won, completing a sweep of the second place Mets, and in the process, upped their lead in the division from a half-game to 4½ games.  Stoddard got the final two outs and picked up his seventh save as the Cubs won 7-6.

1990s: 1994 Score #42 Mark Grace Look at his bat speed, as the bas appears to be bent.

2000s: 2000 Team Issued  #49 Felix Heredia  Baseball card day in 2000 was on August 15. The Cubs lost to the Cardinals 4-2 and the loss was the start of an eight game losing streak.  Heridia watched that game from the bullpen.

2010s: 2016 World Series Blister #WS10 Kris Bryant Bryant's first inning home run in game six got the Cubs off and running.  The scored two more in the first and never looked back, coasting to a 9-3 win.  That set that stage for the dramatic game seven the next night.